KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The discussion since Andrew Benintendi’s first news conference following the offseason trade that sent him from Boston to the Royals had centered around him getting away from hitting home runs.
After all, Benintendi’s pledge since before he put on a Kansas City uniform has been that he’ll return to the form of years past, focus on hitting line drives and take advantage of the vast square footage of the Kauffman Stadium outfield.
Home runs? Passé. He’d moved beyond that. Adopting the launch-angle craze had messed up his swing and altered his approach. So much so that he spent the offseason, spring training and first few weeks of the regular season trying to re-discover that bat path he once rode to success in college, the minors and the beginning of his major-league career.
Then came a fifth-inning at-bat Tuesday night Benintendi stepped to the plate with no outs and the bases loaded in a tie game and pulled a ball over the right-field wall for a game-altering grand slam that sent the Royals to a 10-5 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates in front of an announced 10,333 at Kauffman Stadium.
Benintendi’s slam gave the Royals an 8-4 advantage and was part of a three-homer, 12-hit offensive onslaught that included a pair of Salvador Perez home runs as he collected the seventh multi-homer game of his career.
Benintendi, meanwhile, logged the fourth game of his career with at least five RBIs.
Benintendi and Perez, the Nos. 3 and No. 4 hitters in the Royals’ lineup, combined to go 4 for 9 with three home runs and eight RBIs.
